Minnesota Intelligent Driving Environment Research (MINDER) Program

The purpose of the MINDER program is to create the common simulation resource for human factors and safety researchers in respect to Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) programs. To accomplish this, we have created a simulation capability to re-create part of the I-35W Metropolitan area corridor from the Cross-town commons to just south of downtown Minneapolis. Our purpose in creating this was to allow researchers on different programs to use a common simulation environment. This was the first element of MINDER which was proposed as a larger program to include other segments of the freeway systems of the Twin City Metropolitan region. This corridor is extensively instrumented for traffic flow simulation and control. Successful development and validation of such a simulation environment has allowed a number of particular advantages. It represents, to our knowledge, the first interactively simulated portion of specific urban freeway on any high fidelity simulator. It allows parallel testing of simulation versus actual driving conditions. It is capable of integration with a number of ongoing Mn/DOT, university, and commercial research projects. It provides a human factors testing facility that exceeds most capabilities that currently exist world-wide.